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but I don't understand when R is silent or not? Is there a rule or can anyone explain it to me?

Thanks

I can see your difficulty here! Whether or not you hear the "R" will depend on who's saying the word. A Scot would pronounce all of the words you give as example with a distinctly audible "R", as would a Cornishman. It's a regional thing.
Moggy

but I don't understand when R is silent or not? Is there a rule or can anyone explain it to me?

Thanks

In RP most of the R's are silent. They disaapear before consonants and at the ends of words. R's are audible when occur between vowels or when folled by a vowel. Hence:carrot is r [not silent]cry is r [not silent]friend is r [not silent]free is r [not silent]
(all of R's are folled by vowels in examples above)
In the following examples R's are muted beacuse they're preceeded by vowels which turned to be longer thanks to disapearing R's.garden is r [silent] --> /ɑ:/German is r [silent] --> /ɜ:/four is r [silent] --> /ɔ:/learn is r [silent] --> /ɜ:/Finally, R's in the following exaples turn into vowel schwa /ə/hear is r [silent] --> /hɪə/here is r [silent] --> /hɪə/I hope it helps at least a little

Re: Letter R silent or not silent?

We have a restaurant ad running in some of our TV channels in which the announcer is I believe British. It’s very distinct to hear how the end ‘r’ were dropped in words like “texture” & “adventure” in RP English as Tdol & Seba indicated.

Re: Letter R silent or not silent?

Originally Posted by Tdol

It's not universal in Britain- England and Wales tend to be non-rhotic (don't pronounce the R) and Scotland is generally rhotic.

This also applies to parts of Lancashire, most the West Country, almost all of Northern Ireland and parts of Norfolk and Suffolk. It has to be said that RP is hacking away at these accents, and I've no doubt they'll disappear in time...more's the pity.